Little Notes

1. Friends, your Christmas presents will most likely arrive in January, 1) because cash flow is better in a month in which we are NOT moving, and 2) I’m being honest about my time constraints. Rest assured, presents are already bought, so I’m not stalling for that reason, but I probably won’t make it to the post office in time.

2. There is nothing more frustrating while unpacking than not being able to find everything you need to complete a task. Currently, I’m looking for pushpins. Also, motivation to hang up a lot of clothes.

3. One of my guilty secrets is that I’m slightly into soap operas, General Hospital in particular (though I also follow All My Children and The Young and the Restless). This started my junior year of high school when I took six major classes and had to do my Algebra II homework over my lunch hour, and I discovered it was much more productive to yell at stupid characters than integers. Even now, I still like to yell at people on TV, outside of just sports. All of that is an introduction to say that I am NOT a fan of getting Jason and Sam back together again on General Hospital. I’m not a Sam fan, and I’ve been teased for the past year and a half that Jason and Elizabeth were finally going to get together. If GH fails me, I’m going to stop reading the online spoilers again for awhile (as I don’t actually watch the soap ever day).

4. There are only two full days left until I leave for Christmas at my parents.’ I’m very excited, especially as we opted not to get a tree this year since the house is a mess, and I didn’t want to try to add something else into the mix. And even though it was probably a smart decision, I’m still sad without a tree, and I think it will feel much more like Christmas with my mom’s baking. And my siblings. And family craziness. It definitely felt like Christmas at Matthew’s parents’ though, so I haven’t missed out on all of December– It has just been an odd year, as I told my brother I feel like I’ve fallen out of time since the first week of November, as it has all just been a blur, so it is somewhat of a surprise to me every day that it is Christmastime.

5. Mom’s moving advice: My mom told me that a senior military wife once advised her to always get one room looking fairly normal immediately so that there’s one sanctuary in the house. For us, that one room was the bedroom, in which I have slaughtered the clothes horse today so it is no longer a sanctuary, although both the living and dining/front room are fairly well set up as well, which is nice. I got the kitchen finally unpacked after a few days and that has been a HUGE relief. One has no idea how much stuff is in the kitchen, how many boxes accompany a kitchen, and the fact that none of these things are unnecessary, until the moment of packing or unpacking.

Other good moving advice: have a housewarming party two or three weeks after you move in- or any event, really, in which other people will be coming over- to help spur you to unpack. Even though we haven’t planned such an event, there’s been talk of friends staying with us in January, and that has always helped with motivation when I’ve been lacking.